Intent

Our Vision…

• Aspire to be the very best we can be.
• Develop children’s pride, Self-esteem and respect for themselves and others.
• Ensure that our children make Progress in a stimulating and inclusive environment.
• Give children the opportunities to make choices, question, explore, observe and develop Independence.
• Never give up and are Resilient to challenge and change.
• Lay the foundations for all of our children to be Enterprising young people with high ambitions for the future.

Our school reflects British values in all that we do. We aim to nurture our children on their journey through life so they can grow into safe, caring, democratic, responsible and tolerant adults who make a positive difference to British society and to the world.

We encourage our children to be creative, unique, open-minded and independent individuals, respectful of themselves and of others in our school, our local community and the wider world.

At Spire Nursery and Infant School, we aim to provide an amazing education for all children. In a supportive, inclusive and caring learning community that gives all our children the confidence and opportunity to achieve through varied curriculum opportunities.

We believe that an effective curriculum offers knowledge, skills, understanding and progression. Sequenced learning through their learning journey is key to a well-designed curriculum. Our ambitious curriculum is designed with these principles in mind: it is personalised, reflecting the background and experience of our children. It is designed to recognise children’s prior learning, provide first hand learning experiences, allows the children to develop interpersonal skills, build resilience and become creative, critical thinkers. It ensures that the needs of individuals are met within an environment of high quality teaching, supported by targeted interventions.

A primary focus of our curriculum is to raise aspirations, create a sense of pride in achievement, provide a purpose and relevance for learning and eventually, help every child to find their own strengths and interests. Outdoor learning has a high profile at Spire, and children are introduced to many outdoor learning experiences including Forest School and subject specific activities.

Subject leaders play a vital part in the success of the curriculum by leading a regular programme of monitoring, evaluation and review. Teaching and Learning is constantly reviewed and updated taking into account new initiatives and developments.

Community involvement is an integral part of our curriculum, inviting families and visitors to facilitate learning new skills and sharing experiences such as assemblies and activity days.

Through our curriculum we aim to:

• Ensure that our children love learning. Enjoyment of the curriculum promotes achievement, confidence and good behaviour so we want our children to be educated in a stimulating, inspiring and engaging environment. We want children to enjoy coming to school because of the positive relationships we have developed both inside and outside the classroom. We want our children to feel safe to try new things.
• Unlock the potential of our children. We want to design a curriculum that is not just ambitious but, that it is responsive to the needs of the children and the community which we serve. We want to give our children the knowledge and cultural capital they need to unlock amazing opportunities in life. We set high expectations and aspirations and seek to challenge all children. We encourage independence, reliance and self-belief and encourage children to have a mind-set of “I can’t do it yet!” rather than “I can’t.”
• Develop character and social capital. We want to develop our children’s character and give them the confidence to cope in any environment or situation. We want children to have a voice to encourage debates. We provide opportunities for freedom of speech to be valued through class/school council and activities like P4C.
• Embed powerful knowledge and cultural capital. Our children will acquire knowledge that takes them beyond their own experiences to enable them to be socially mobile. Key knowledge will be carefully sequenced and chunked as part of an ambitious journey through the school. Our children will gain memorable teaching experiences gained from first-hand explorations and investigations and relevant quality visits and workshops which are designed to enhance the curriculum.
• Make learning exciting, challenging and aspirational. We strive to meet the children’s needs by providing them with a broad, balanced and creative curriculum, designed to build on their interests as well as filling in gaps. We aim to ensure a Mastery approach in all subjects and use questioning techniques to challenge all learners.
• Develop ownership of learning. Children will work in partnership with all staff with the ultimate aim being that they will take ownership of their own learning and becoming independent because they understand how this supports them to lead happy and fulfilled lives. We encourage children to become young entrepreneurs, taking part in many enterprise activities.